On this date in 1967 Jimi Hendrix recorded Purple Haze. at De Lane Lea Studios in London. 10 things you might not know about the song:
The song was inspired by a dream Hendrix had after reading a science fiction novel, Night of Light, a 1966 novel by Philip José Farmer. In the story set on a distant planet, sunspots produce a "purplish haze" which has a disorienting effect on the inhabitants. In Hendrix’s dream he was walking under the sea and a Purple haze surrounded him, engulfed him and got him lost.. He reported that in the dream, his faith in Jesus saved him.
Hence in an early draft of the lyrics, Hendrix wrote the chorus as "purple haze, Jesus saves."
Hendrix was playing around with the Guitar riff and was overheard by producer Chas Chandler, who said 'That's the next single!'
Hendrix wrote the rest of the song in the dressing room of a London club during the afternoon of December 26, 1966, before a gig.
On the recording, the drummer was Mitch Mitchell and the bassist was Noel Redding. They only learned the song when they arrived at the studio and Hendrix hummed the riff to them and showed them the chords. It took three takes to get it right,.
To create the background track that sounds distant, they put a pair of headphones around a microphone and recorded it that way to get an echo effect.
When the recording was sent to Hendrix's American label, a note said, "deliberate distortion, do not correct."
This song has one of the most famous misheard lyrics of all time. "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" is often heard as "'scuse me while I kiss this guy". Though it has to be said that Hendrix sometimes sang it that way for a laugh.
Purple Haze was featured in the film Forrest Gump.
The track was the penultimate song Hendrix played in concert, on September 6, 1970, days before his death.
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